Check out Scuba Diving in China – Qian Dao Lake (Part I) & Scuba Diving in China – Qian Dao Lake (Part II) for the preceding articles to this one on the following links:
Scuba Diving in China – Qian Dao Lake (Part I): https://indopacificimages.com/articles/?p=516
Scuba Diving in China – Qian Dao Lake (Part II): https://indopacificimages.com/articles/?p=591
Scuba Diving in China Part III
While the diving part of the weekend trip to Qian Dao Lake was memorable for it’s challenging nature, it was not the most enjoyable set of dives I have ever done… However, the evening spent at the hotel and the drive & ferry trip back to Shanghai certainly were memorable.
It was late afternoon by the time we left the lake on the Saturday and starting to go dark. As we drove back to the hotel we noticed that there were no lights on in town and when we did get to the hotel, it was without a single light on. It turned out that power cuts are quite common in this area – apparently there is an overall power deficit, so the lights are turned off in the remote locations to allow them to stay on in the large cities of Shanghai & Hangzhou….
However, my thoughts were more on how we would get dinner if there was no power?
It turned out that the hotel kitchen staff were able to produce an excellent multiple course meal by candle light using charcoal braziers to cook the food. The only negative being that the beer was warmish…. but after a couple of them, it did not seem to matter too much!
The next morning we went back to the lake for the morning’s dives – both out at Lion City where the conditions remained the same, and from the shore for the training dives. Then after a quick lunch, it was time to head back to Shanghai with the imperative of catching the afternoon ferry to avoid an additional two hours of driving.
The Qian Dao lakes really are very scenic and the area around the ferry boarding point was particularly so. I kept myself busy taking photographs while the Big Blue Diving bus manoeuvred for position in the queue to get on the next ferry.
When I saw the ferry arriving I returned to the bus, only to find a fracas in full swing – with a guy in a Toyota blasting out on his horn in protest at our bus getting in front of him. When the guy eventually got out of his car we could see that he was so drunk he could not walk and when he tried to throw a punch at Leigh Chan he missed and fell over. To make things worst he had his young daughter in the car, sat in the front passenger seat with no seat belt….
The guy was eventually persuaded that driving in such a condition was not a great idea and we all boarded the ferry, leaving him behind to sober up.
We got back safely to Shanghai and all round it was a memorable experience and yes, I would go again but I would want to know if that dredger was still operating on the lake first…
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Don
